FIVE SECOND STORIES

9/4-we finally got a bit of rain yesterday afternoon, another one of those events where the rain went north of us until later. It was a series of showers, a bit of lightning and everything got nice and wet. The readings at the airport was 1.05"-my rain gauge showed a trace.

Today is my brother Mike's 80th birthday! Congrats, bro on achieving that many orbits around the sun and we wish you many more! Here's a pic of Mike and his wife of 55 years, Martha.

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Our people are from the Elsie, MI area which is about 35 miles NE of Lansing. My Mom's sister Louise married into the Tillotson clan whose ancestor Elsie, was the first white child born in Duplain, MI in 1853. The village of Elsie is located six miles to the NE, founded in 1857 and named in her honor. Our paternal grandfather had a farm about 6 miles to the NE of Elsie. About 5 miles to the NW is the village of Bannister. 

Bannister is an unincorporated community, meaning it's not a formally incorporated city or village. About 700-800 people live there. It was established in 1885, following a post office being built in 1883, with the railroad coming through the next year. My Dad's sister-in-law Joanne, served as postmistress 1968-1993. Mom's sister Aggie lived there and grandfather Kristin helped fund the building of St. Cyril Catholic Church located on the outskirts of town. From the Church's website, an anecdote from its history which I had never heard before: During the 1920's, the Ku Klux Klan members confronted farmers while working in the fields. The Klan informed then that Catholics were not welcome in the community and advised them against attending mass. The men, leaping to their own defense, used their pitchforks to drive the Klan from their land. Such was the push back by Protestant residents against immigrants from Eastern Europe like my Catholic Slovak grandfather. I remember my parents making a statement that when they were growing up, Catholics and Protestants would not walk on the same side of the street. 

When I was young, wedding receptions were often held at the Slovak Hall in Bannister. The hall was 2 large rooms with a ballroom for a band and dancing (polka!) and the other containing tables and chairs where guests ate and drank. I remember the place smelled of tobacco smoke and beer. Across the street was a bar and there was a curious habit during such events where folks would go there, have a drink, then return. We thought this was odd although upon reflection, the best explanation was that those going to the bar wanted to imbibe alcohol stronger than the beer served at the reception. I remember hearing that the hall burned down but cannot find any mention in research. Events are now held at the ZCBJ Hall just up the street.

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September appetizer: homemade whole wheat bread with cardamom, homegrown cherry toms and basil, evol, sea salt.

 September begins,

tomatoes bread salt,

olive oil fingers 

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 DHS on guard!

Keeping an eye on LG who had run onto the deck begging for peanuts. 

When you live with cats...it doesn't matter if the table is set for supper. DHS has a job to do!

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Autumn has arrived early! We see bits of trees already turning and the skies have been blue, partly cloudy with bright white clouds. Temps have barely gotten into the mid-60s.

SIL Martha's marigolds, from seeds she had sent from Tucson, are finally beginning to bloom. 
 

LG is a screen climber! As I have noted, he is very friendly and will run up to us when we toss out peanuts. This has escalated to him coming right to the slider to make a request and now, he is climbing the screen. Oy. This behavior mirrors that of another one of our squirrel friends, Stubbs, who did the same thing back in 2023. You gotta wonder if LG is one of his progeny.

Fun vids:

AI from Kelly Boesch Underwater Spaces:

The song lyrics could be for a space voyager who hit a black hole and miraculously returned back to Earth only in the year 3000-some things have changed, some have not.

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A couple of funny vintage BBC vids, both of which at times could be prime inspirations for the Python's satire.

From 1973-Old Boy Robbie searches for the perfect pint of beer:

One interesting take away from this doc was the Great Beer Divide between England and Continental Europe: it's all in the choice of hops that dictates the flavor: the EU uses male hop plants and England uses female hops. Who knew? And why?

From 1976-Scot Big Jim makes a 20+mile alcohol-fueled journey on his bike to see a woman:

 

Charming animated short, made by 3 grad students from Taiwan in 2010-Out of Sight:

Surfing kitty! 

American Woodcock bird:

 

Man, they have the rhythm!... and take 5 minutes to walk across a road.

A Harvard professor pontificates to the Iphone addicted young-from the Harvard Business Review:

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C said this turned up in her feed:

 

The "Nowhere to Run" video by Martha and the Vandellas was filmed at the Ford Dearborn Assembly Plant, part of the Rouge complex, in Dearborn, MI, in 1965. The footage shows the band members performing on the moving Mustang assembly line as the vehicles were being built, for the CBS television special It's What's Happening Baby. Man, if that Mustang the girls were sitting on could be ID'd and still exists, I bet it could go for a small fortune at auction!

When C lived in Paris, France, for a number of years during the summer, she taught at the Key Institute, located in Sligo, Ireland. Teens from all over Europe came to learn and use English as a second language. While primarily an equestrian center, other activities were offered such as canoeing, hiking, sports, arts, theater, and music. C taught dance and often used 60's music like the one above as the basis for routines. The Key Institute is still in operation. 

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I came across an article posing this question: why didn't the Irish eat fish to save themselves during the Great Famine of the 19th century? After all, they're on an island! 

Answer: they knew how to fish but to transport their catch around the island, the fish had to be processed. Why didn't they have an industry established to do this?

Answer: they used to have such an industry but their English overlords over the decades, let it decay. Why? To protect their own native markets. The Irish had no power, no organization, few rights and terribly poor living in one room huts: 

It is estimated that 40% of the population lived in such dwellings, that to my eye, look similar to American Sodbusters homes. The English didn't care how they suffered so as the death toll mounted, the Irish had a choice: stay and starve or try and get to America for a chance to survive. Roughly one million Irish died from starvation or disease and another one million are said to have emigrated.

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Earlier this year, I wrote a post expressing my dislike of workplace motivational posters such as this: 

Perhaps this is the origin: Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, a painting by German Romanticist artist Casper David Friedrich from 1818.

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FUBARland: the Roach is visibly rotting away physically and is a demented mess during pressers. He was batshit nutty during another of his gilded Oval Office reality show meetings with world leaders. At the latest one with the president of Poland, he went seriously off-topic to rant about the Epstein mess. Along with all the rest that he has destroyed, it's time for this to stop. It's time to invoke the 25th.